By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,

Michigan State entered this past season ranked #2 in the AP poll. They had their struggles in midseason, but played up to the hype when it counted in March. Without top player Kalin Lucas, the Spartans still finished just one HORRIBLE non-call away from playing in the national title game.

Butler star forward Gordon Hayward even admitted it himself, telling CBS’ Seth Davis that he legitimately hacked MSU’s Draymond Green on Green’s potential game-tying shot in the final seconds of the national semi-final game.

It was very cool of him to come clean, and some State fans might feel a little better now about how the Spartans met their Thermopylae. However the hope in East Lansing is that next year’s team will be so good even a miserable FAILURE by a NCAA referee isn’t enough to keep them from the title.

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Kalin’s torn left Achilles tendon served as a short-term rallying point for his teammates this past March. Winning for Kalin was their “cause” for reaching the Final Four; much like having the Final Four in their home state was the “cause” to reach the title game in ‘09.

“And I think after Kalin went down, everybody just made that commitment to just join together, just try to make a run, And that’s what we’ve been doing,” Lucas’s replacement, another KL, Korie Lucious said during the tourney.

And now Lucas is officially back for his senior season, as is his teammate Durrell Summers, the Midwest Regional’s Most Outstanding Player. The last time both a star Michigan State point guard and a stellar MSU wing chose to stay in school instead of turning pro, the school won a national championship.

Remember 1999, a time when Ricky Martin and really annoying “boy bands” were oppressively popular? Back then Michigan St. was led by a spectacular floor general named Mateen Cleaves, who battled major injuries to lead his team to the Final Four during his junior season. In his senior year, the player famous for his ugly Bill Cosby style sweaters he sported while injured and cheerleading on the bench, came back.

As did Morris Peterson, a talented wing player like Summers. And during the 1999-2000 season, the Spartans earned their second NCAA title in school history.

“We want to follow the same path Mateen and Morris did,” Summers, who averaged nearly 19 points a game during the NCAA, told the AP Friday.

So with Lucas and Summers officially back, what will the supporting cast look like? The only notable senior gone for 2011 is Raymar Morgan, an all-conference honorable mention. He certainly is a key loss, but the Spartans will once again be locked and loaded next year. Their incoming freshmen class is very stellar- highlighted by consensus top 5 center Adreian Payne and Keith Appling, a top ten point guard. Draymond Green has NBA potential too, and he’ll have another year of seasoning going for him next year, as will the talented Derrick Nix and Delvon Roe, who both came to East Lansing with much fanfare.

With all this going for them, it’s hard to think of a better “team to beat,” at least on paper, in college basketball this November.

Head Coach Tom Izzo said it best after the Final Four loss to Butler. Early second-half foul trouble and a roster decimated by injury forced him to play a rather unusual and disjointed line-up. He addressed this issue in the post-game presser, and looked ahead to 2010-11.

“That’s something I’ll learn from. We’re going to do a better job next year. You think our war drill is something now. Next year it’s going to be fist-fighting because I’m going to make sure my guys are never, ever, ever, ever, physically beaten out of a game again,” Izzo said.

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

Under the current and counter-intuitive BCS system, college football will never have a title game like the instant classic we watched Monday night. There will never be a mid-major taking on a BCS conference school, and battling them down to the final second, for all the marbles.

2010 has been perhaps the most exciting NCAA Tournament in memory. And the final game, a Duke 61-Butler 59 Goliath-barely-escaping-from-David classic was the perfect frosting to a delightfully delicious cake. This March madness is yet another example of why the college hoops postseason is BY FAR the best postseason around.

It doesn’t need fixing; college football’s pathetic excuse for a postseason does. And because of this vast disparity in playoff structure, when it comes to naming my favorite league college basketball will always be my 1a) and college football my 1b) even though football is by far my favorite sport.

Hey BCS, Get an effing clue!

On Sunday a reporter here in Indianapolis asked Coach K. to speak about how this sort of championship environment, could never happen in football.

“No, it can’t. It can’t because the top hundred football programs have their own thing, and then there’s AA. It’s a completely different animal. And they don’t have a system that would allow a smaller school to get into their spotlight with the BCS. They know what the heck they’re doing as far as monopoly,” Coach K. said.

“That’s why I think our tournament has captured America, is because everybody can get in it. Everybody can identify. Everyone’s got a chance. And they got a chance right now, whether there’s expansion or not, through their conference tournaments. And then once they’re in it, look what’s happened…Boy, this year it’s really happened.” Kryzyzewski continued.

You’ll notice he used the word monopoly. Yes, exactly. In his piece entitled “Butler’s run proves continued idiocy of BCS,” Akiem of the blog Footbasket, put it perfectly:

“Under the BCS system where the Big 6 Conferences get preferential treatment, Butler despite winning The Horizon League wouldn’t be anywhere near a National Championship game. It would probably be Kansas vs. Kentucky. There would be no magical run or any comparisons to Hoosiers. All we’d have is a system where the regular season is essentially de-valued so the big wigs like Jim Delany (Big Ten commissioner) could make extra unnecessary money off of the competition-loving sports fan.”

It’s true- the NCAA’s current maxim is greed and profits uber alles. And it seems like that belief becomes more extreme each day. They even charged journalists covering the tournament $16 a day to have internet access while they’re at the arena doing their jobs.

Yes, forcing media professionals to pay to do their job, instead of getting paid to do their job. So it should come as no surprise that “it’s all about the benjamins” at the macro level of the NCAA organization, because it’s the exact same on the micro level.

We watched history last night. 2010’s Final Game will be right up there with 1979 and 1983, in the discussions about what title game was most intriguing all-time.

Now imagine if we could have that with Boise St. or TCU capping off a “December Madness” someday?

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

DePaul needs a splash hire to revive their dormant program; and ESPN’s Steve Lavin could be it. The Blue Demons need someone to come in and convince local talent to stay home and start something, and I’m not convinced SIU’s Chris Lowery or Jazz Assistant (and former Blue Demon) Tyrone Corbin is that someone.

Then I saw this on the Twitter account of CBS’ Seth Davis yesterday:

“Some dish on DePaul job: Steve Lavin and Craig Robinson are interested. So is Isiah Thomas, but admin cool to him. Sleeper is Tony Barbee. 3:17 AM Mar 1st via TweetDeck

Lavin declined to comment on this situation.

Thus far, Lavin’s “World Wide Leader” star power makes him the most interesting name in the job mix. Here are the pros and cons:

Why this would be a good fit

-Chicago is a very attractive location for any prospective coach, but especially so for an individual so familiar with the area. Most of the games that Lavin calls on ESPN are Big Ten games, and Chicago is unquestionably the capital of “Big Ten Country.”

-He already has Midwest ties (serving as an assistant on Gene Keady’s Purdue staff from 1988-1991) which would help in recruiting an area that’s a hotbed of prep talent.

-Going from UCLA to DePaul is somewhat akin to Ron Zook going from Florida to Illinois (where Zook goes from here is obviously anywhere but up, but that’s another story). The expectations are much lower, the pressure is off, and victory is defined by much smaller goals.

-During Lavin’s tenure as head coach, the Bruins qualified for six consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Making Lav one of two coaches (also Mike Krzyzewski) to have led his team to five Sweet 16s in six seasons. Lavin’s record in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament is 10-1. His first weekend of the tourney winning percentage (90.9%) is second only to Dean Smith.

-Lavin lead his team to victory over the No. 1 team in the country in four consecutive collegiate seasons (Arizona ’03, Kansas ’02, Stanford ’01, and Stanford ’00.

-Lavin has a chance to rebuild a program that was once proud in the ‘70s and ‘80s. And with the exception of Ray Meyer, he could easily surpass the accomplishments of any DePal coach in recent memory without doing a whole lot.

Why this wouldn’t work

-Lavin has a sweet gig right now that thousands of broadcasting professionals would KILL for. He even gets to spend a ton of time traveling around the nation with super-babe Erin Andrews. Would you want to give that up?

-Coach Lav’s coaching style certainly has its share of critics. Baron Davis called him out recently. And there is a wide perception (justly or unjustly) that his practices at UCLA were glorified shootarounds.

-One of the most popular UCLA blogs, Bruins Nation, referred to him as “the Blagojevich of College Hoops,” and their opinions reflect negative memories that many UCLA fans have of his tenure in Westwood.

-While DePaul resides in the prestigious Big East conference, and their campus is located in the upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood, the Blue Demons also play their home games at Allstate Arena which is located adjacent to O’Hare international airport; WAY out there for any college student living on campus. And, let’s be honest here, many college students require getting extremely drunk before attending home games (DePaul’s less than .100 winning percentage in conference recently doesn’t help) and that’s very difficult to do when your home gym isn’t easily accessible by walking and public transportation. And that arena is far from state-of-the-art to begin with.

So how much of an attraction would this program truly be to Lav? Especially after the bright lights of Bristol and college basketball’s most storied program; located in Hollywood nonetheless.

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

Well now he’s taken his team to the Final Four (rescuing my bracket, since I had the foresight to pick Nova in the round of 4).  In what was the best tournament game this year and possibly the best in the last few years, he didn’t let me down, taking the ball to the basket with time ticking away for a game-winner over Pitt.  Here’s the good stuff.

So if you were ever watching a game and thinking “Boy, I wonder what Stormin’ Norman thinks about that play,” or maybe, “Do you think StevieY thinks this college basketball team is overrated (he does),” then this live-blog is right up your alley.  Hopefully our inability to understand technology at all doesn’t affect this little event.  If we manage to pull it off, we will see you there.  Otherwise whatever, since my stupid f#$%ing bracket is busted anyways.  Have a good weekend.

Steve from Not Qualified to Comment talking college hoops on BetUS.com!

Based on his college football picks, I wouldn’t exactly bet on what he says, but at least you don’t have to hear my nasally voice. Enjoy!